To protect your family from bats, it’s important to keep your balcony or patio as bat-free as possible. Start by depriving flying mammals of food sources. Bats like to eat moths, mosquitoes, and other flying insects that are attracted to light. If you habitually keep your porch or patio lit at night, you are providing the bats with a free insect buffet.
Eliminating outdoor lighting may not be practical, but consider replacing bright white lights with yellow light bulbs. Doing so reduces the number of insects that congregate in outdoor spaces because yellowish light has wavelengths that are less attractive to insects than white light. When the insects are gone, the bats go elsewhere for dinner. In addition, bats are light-phobic nocturnal mammals, so yellow light pouring down on a verandah or patio stimulates their vision and forces them to flee into the dark.
Another way to create a hostile environment for bats is to flood your porch with olfactory stimulants. Bats dislike strong natural odors such as peppermint, thyme, rosemary, cinnamon, and cloves. To keep your patio bat-free, spray corners with mint- or cinnamon-based oil, or place pots or window boxes with fresh rosemary or thyme where you’ve seen bats perching. Please consider adding.
